Design decisions through the lens of performance

Prerequisite Knowledge

Design and front end development principles

Description

We design sites for a myriad of devices with varying connection speeds. More and more, we’re discovering the importance of fast page speed. Even 100 millisecond delay in load times negatively impacts user experience and conversions.

The problem is, making a site fast and lightweight is often at odds with other design goals—like creating visually immersive experiences or meeting all of an organization’s rich-media ad requirements. While a stripped ­down site with no images, set entirely in Arial, is certainly going to be light, it’s not going to accomplish all our client’s business goals. In this talk, we’ll discuss how we can make smarter design decisions, from the beginning of a project, to ensure that our sites perform well.

How to use a typography performance budget to create smarter, lighter, and more impactful typography systems

How collaboration between designers and developers improves performance

How designing modularly and creating a living style guide improve performance

Yesenia Perez-Cruz

Vox Media

Yesenia Perez-Cruz is a designer based out of Philadelphia, PA. She is currently a senior product designer at Vox Media. Yesenia has created beautiful, functional design systems for clients like MTV, Zappos, and Iron Chef Jose Garces. She has spoken at conferences like An Event Apart, Future of Web Design, and Smashing Conference. She also acts as an acquisitions scout for A List Apart. Previously, she was a senior designer at Happy Cog in Philadelphia.